On February 10 and 11, the Boys Varsity Squash Team competed in the Division I New England Championships hosted by Deerfield Academy. Coached by former Deerfield History Teacher Coach Mike Silipo and English Teacher Ryan Tyree, and captained by Ocean Feng ’24 and Christian Capella ’25, the Boys Varsity Squash team headed into the tournament with home field advantage and plan to win. Composed of some of the best squash teams in the nation, the Division I New England Championships was filled with the same high-caliber teams that go on to win the High School Squash Nationals. Going into the tournament, the Deerfield boys were seeded sixth out of eight teams, but ended up winning the first consolation bracket and finishing fifth.
Throughout the two day tournament, Deerfield played Hotchkiss, St. Pauls, and then Andover. In the match against Hotchkiss during the quarter-finals, Deerfield Academy lost by only one match, improving since earlier in the season when they lost 1–6 Hart Robertson ’26, Kyle Yang ’26, and Jo El Yabory ’25 all won crucial matches, and Capella and Read Kitchel ’26 both took their opponents to five games.
Against St. Pauls, the Deerfield boys secured a resounding 6–1 win. The win against St. Pauls ended the Saturday, and Deerfield reached the finals of the first consolation of the Division I New England Championships. On Saturday morning in the finals against a higher-seeded Phillips Academy Andover, the Deerfield boys won by a narrow 4–3 to finish fifth in the tournament.
Feng expressed his pride in his team, commending “how hard all of the guys worked, especially the boys who all played three matches within a twenty four hour period.” Feng said, “It’s been a long season but the boys are on a good roll.” Feng is confident that the team will end the season strong and is excited to leave the team with a good legacy.
Robertson, who went undefeated during the entire course of the tournament, also expressed how pleased he was with the team’s performance. “We all played really well, we all fought hard, and even though we didn’t get the result that we wanted, we still are proud
of the battle we fought,” he said.
The tournament also drew many supportive Deerfield fans, such as Michael Clifford Levy ’26 and Tucker Gongaware ’26. “It was a ton of fun to witness such high level squash being played,” Gongaware said, “and our friends who were playing in these matches also told us later how much they thrived off our energy and the home court advantage.” The boys varsity squash team finished their campaign in the 2024 U.S. High School Squash Championships at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center where they finished ninth in the nation.